By Peter Bell

Blogging from the eee

Posted At : April 2, 2008 3:06 PM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: Misc
Well, I've got to say that after taking a couple of days to get used to the setup, I'm really liking my ASUS eee as a backup/note taking/blogging solution.

Basically I use the 17" MacBook Pro at home, in the office and if I want to get some serious work done in a coffee shop. The rest of the time (subway journeys, taking notes at a CFUG, etc) I'll use the eee.

The keyboard does take a little bit of getting used to - it is about as small as a keyboard can get without becoming a device more suited to texting than writing, but after using it for a couple of hours, it's working out fine. When I get home I can then either connect to my wireless network to post a blog entry or I can just copy the files to my Mac using a USB stick.

Only small issue is that the battery drains quite fast in "sleep" mode, so you can't just leave the ASUS in sleep over the weekend and be able to use it on the Monday morning. But given an average boot time of about 16 seconds and a shutdown of about 10-12 seconds, it can boot as fast as many machines can resume from hibernation.

I still haven't set up Skype or an IM client or used the laptop to check web pages, but I'm sure I'll get round to it sometime. Also, I just got a Sprint data card for the Mac which is supposed to work on the ASUS, so it could be great for checking email or the web while in a car (assuming I'm not driving!).

Anyone else playing with one of these? Any hints/tips/thoughts?

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After reading your post, I told my wife I'm getting one of these soon. All she would say is, "I hate you. I hate you both." Oh well. she'll get over it and I get a new toy.
# Posted By Gary Funk | 4/2/08 3:51 PM
@Gary,

At least you didn't decide to buy a MacBook Pro . . . I suppose that's the one good piece of news for your wife :->

Just make sure to try an ASUS in a store. Depending on the size of your fingers and how you type, you'll either find the eee to be snug or completely unusable. I played with a friends eee in the UK before I decided to buy.
# Posted By Peter Bell | 4/2/08 3:57 PM
I'm so jealous! :) FWIW - On Linux I've had good luck with Pidgin for IM.
# Posted By Jim Priest | 4/2/08 7:22 PM
Thanks for the tip Jim - I'll give it a shot. You gonna be at any of the conferences this year?
# Posted By Peter Bell | 4/2/08 8:59 PM
"copy the files to my Mac using a USB stick"
Is this the only solution for moving files to Mac?
What about Windows file sharing?
# Posted By cosmin | 4/3/08 2:58 AM
@Cosmin, There are probably loads of other solutions, but I haven't tried them yet. I'm not sure best way to transfer files from Linux to a Mac, but I'm guessing there's something Unixy I could do - I just haven't tried it yet.
# Posted By Peter Bell | 4/3/08 9:02 AM
I've had fairly good luck sharing a drive between my wife's PC (WinXP) and my Linux box (Ubuntu) using SMB and I would think the Mac has Samba on it as well so that should work.
# Posted By Jim Priest | 4/3/08 9:07 AM
Normally you use Samba or SFTP to exchange files between linux and Win. And OSX is a BSD flavor so under all the nice gui there's still a *nix running.
But I am thinking of getting one too and I was curious about the limitations of the EeePC's Linux version. I imagined Peter already tried some stuff and USB was the only working solution :)
At this point first thing I wold try is installing sshfs on OSX and mounting the EeePC's file system. It works ok for the iPhone. For talking to Win you still need to run samba.
# Posted By cosmin | 4/3/08 1:42 PM
@Cosmin, I'm sure other alternatives would work fine. I had a USB drive and a deadline. It worked, so that was me done. I really should try other alternatives, but now that the flash drive works I don't have a lot of incentives. I'd rather spend the time playing with MX Unit or adding features to LightWire. Clearly I'm not geek enough to get the most out of my computers :->
# Posted By Peter Bell | 4/3/08 1:54 PM
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